James An

At Kongregate, all of our published mobile games go through a rigorous test market period (a.k.a. geo-locked launch) lasting at least a month. This is an important phase of the mobile game product cycle, as it allows the team to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the title through data-driven KPIs, and to make changes to address any issues we observe before we release the game globally, whether they are crashes/bugs, tutorial/retention drop-offs, monetization or ad engagement. In this blog post, we share our learnings from running test market campaigns, with a focus on the pros and cons of running tests in different parts of the world. Phase 1: The Philippines The Philippines is a popular country for testing. Players are cheap to acquire with Cost-Per-Installs (CPIs) typically ranging from as low as $0.30 to $1.00. This allows developers/publishers to hit a meaningful number of installs quickly and stay within budget. The caveat is that games with a niche theme and/or art might see higher CPIs; for example, our recently launched Pocket